Forever Longbottom
by M.L. Widmann
Summary: Neville's first day of teaching Herbology at Hogwarts could not get any better - especially when something comes into his possession that boosts his confidence tremendously!


**Disclaimer: **I do not own Neville, nor did I create the fact that he's so bad-ass.  
If you read this after having read my really long Harry Potter OC fic, you'll come into this with the idea of that world. If you haven't, you'll look at this any way you want. That's the beauty of literature.

Forever Longbottom

Neville pulled on his robes that morning as he did every other morning. He washed his face and looking in the mirror, tipped his pointed hat off to one side. It reminded him of the way he imagined his dad wearing it, and that was back when he was only a little wizard living full-time with his grandmother. Somehow the childish ideal seemed to fit into the situation, so on his first day of his new job, Neville decided a tipped hat would be best.

He was no longer the round-faced boy everyone knew him as at Hogwarts, so returning so many years later gave him a new confidence that his first impression would not be regretted this time around. That wasn't the only thing, though, that changed since Neville's first year at school. The old Neville would have been terrified the entire walk from his office to the classroom, but instead, New Neville had him practically skipping down the stairs and out to the greenhouses.

The sun shone down on Neville as he stepped out of the castle, but a light breeze kept the air hanging around him the perfect temperature. He looked up to the sun with a smirk, squinting, and then kissed the gold band on his left hand finger, wishing his other half was there to share the moment with him. He'd made a mental note to tell her about it later.

Making his way to greenhouse number one for his first class, Neville managed to trip only once over his robes – he still was Neville, after all – and sat down at the desk in front of the class. It was the first day at Hogwarts for all of these students, so he wasn't planning on starting them off with anything too hard; _just theory for today_, he thought, _don't want to scare them off too quickly_.

He was the first one in the greenhouse, so he sat in silence, organizing and reorganizing the tools on his desk, going over his lesson in his head for what had to be the seventeenth time that morning. As soon as he heard the faint sound of footsteps approaching the class, Neville decided his tilted hat was a silly idea, and straightened it out. When he looked up to see who it was, he realized he could have been wearing a Pygmy Puff costume and it wouldn't have mattered.

"Oh, well, hello there," he greeted, a wide, stupid grin on his face.

"Hi Dad!" His only daughter, Elizabeth, was gorgeous. Her long dark brown hair waved down over her shoulders, and her round face supported her big brown eyes and rosy cheeks beautifully. She was just over five feet, average height for her age of eleven – Elizabeth looked a lot like her mother, expect for the hair. She sported her Gryffindor robes proudly, which most witches would not do if their father was their House Head. After hearing about what her parents experienced at the Battle of Hogwarts, she respected them like no one else.

Neville watched as Elizabeth pushed her book bag higher up her shoulder, and then held her hand out to him. "What's this?"

"Mom told me to give it to you," she said, not understanding the purpose for her father needing a Chocolate Frog at nine in the morning. She dumped the Frog's package into Neville's hand and skipped off toward the door she had entered through.

Neville called after her, "Have a good first day, Lizz!"

She stopped at the door, turned around and smiled. When she stood at the door, the light hit her head like a halo. "You, too!" She took one step onward and then came back for a moment. "Why'd you straighten your hat?"

"You like it crooked?" Neville laughed.

Elizabeth chuckled along, "I think it gives you... character!"

As she left the brightly lit greenhouse, Neville could not stop smiling. He turned the Chocolate Frog over so the flat side of the packaging was facing up, only to see there was a message written on the blue design with red ink. _Open now!_, it read. Curiosity had snatched Neville's complete attention, so he carefully unfastened the small box's latch and lifted the lid. He was so caught off-guard that he sat back and allowed the frog to jump to the floor and out of the room.

Inside the box was a Famous Wizard Card, one he hadn't yet seen. His heart stopped. A photograph of himself was smiling back at him. It wielded the sword of Gryffindor, looking very proud. Neville pried the card out of the box and flipped it over to read the back.

_NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM  
Currently Head of Gryffindor and Herbology teacher at Hogwarts_

_Longbottom fought alongside famous witches and wizards such as Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter at the Battle of Hogwarts in 1998. Longbottom is most famous for his destroying of You-Know-Who's closest Horcrux, playing a very large part in His defeat._

_He demonstrates the personality of a true Gryffindor._

Neville didn't know what to do or say. Students were already filing into the greenhouse, but his mind was back to the spring of '98. They must have been wondering what he was beaming so stupidly at. Then something else caught his eye; there was more red ink on the inside of the box that the card had been covering. _Good luck on your first day, love. _


End file.
